The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said the government's plans for elected police commissioners should be scrapped and the money spent on action to tackle gang culture and save the jobs of 2,000 officers.

Cooper pitched Labour against the elected posts amid debate about whether the party would put forward candidates for the roles.

After a difficult time in parliament, the legislation now looks set to be passed and the first elections will take place next November. But Cooper said their £100m implementation, at a time of cuts elsewhere in the service, was "deeply irresponsible".

"Next year, in Olympic year, the government will spend over £100m electing politicians on £120,000 to become crime chiefs," she added.

"But this is the year when the eyes of the world are upon us, our great opportunity. We cannot have a repeat of this summer's shameful violence and disorder. So the government should rethink.

"Stop the elections next year and use the money to stop crime instead. Use that cash to stop 2,000 officers being cut in Olympic year. Use that cash for a serious rollout this year of tough action on tackling gangs and preventing crime."

She added that "the job of government is to act to prevent crime, not just stand back and lament crime".

Cooper made the pledge in her first speech to a Labour conference as the shadow home secretary. The speech was delayed after she rearranged her schedule to make a visit to Kellingley, in her constituency, where a miner was killed in an accident on Tuesday evening.

After Tuesday's booing of the mention of Tony Blair by some members of the conference audience, Cooper referred approvingly to the former prime minister's agenda on crime.

She said: "Tony Blair was right. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. Because it worked. Crime fell by 40%, 7m fewer crimes a year. The first government since records began where crime went down and not up. That's Labour's record, and we should be proud of it."

Cooper added that she accepted the need for police cuts, saying: "The police do have to make their fair share of cuts, [but] now we see a British prime minister handing P45s to crimefighting heroes. He shouldn't be sacking the police, he should be backing the police.

"What do we get from Theresa May and David Cameron? Chaos and confusion. They promise less bureaucracy, but they increase the forms officers have to fill. They promise to professionalise the service, but then abolish the training to deliver it.

"Breathless promises this summer to send in the army. Troops on the streets of Britain. Prime minister, you don't need to bring in the army if you have enough police."

The shadow home secretary highlighted new gang programmes that she thought should get funds. Schemes in Boston and Lambeth had been successful, she said, as "police and council target gang members and confront them with the choice – get out of gangs and we will help you build a better future, or face the full force of the law".

She pointed to statistics that showed the multi-agency approach saw a 63% decrease in youth murders per month and a drop of 25% in gun assaults each month.

She also announced that the former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Stevens would chair Labour's review of the future of policing.

"The government has refused to do so. So we will," Cooper said. "It will be led by someone who started as a beat officer in Tottenham and rose to be commissioner of the Metropolitan police."

Cooper explained that the review was intended to "bring some coherence and vision to the ideologically motivated, chaotic and piecemeal approach to police reform undertaken by this government".

Her attack on plans for elected police commissioners will raise questions about whether Labour intends to field candidates or will remain opposed.

The Lib Dems had opposed the legislation, but a compromise reached at the beginning of the month resulted in the elections for police chiefs being moved from the date of next May's local elections to 2012.

However, because they will now be held on a day on which no other elections are planned, their cost could reach over £100m.

Speaking before Cooper, the Birmingham Erdington MP, Jack Dromey, said it was "sick" for police to be told what to do by "Tory commissars".

Earlier in the week, one member of Cooper's shadow ministerial team, the policing minister, Vernon Coaker, insisted Labour was "likely" to field candidates in next year's elections for police and crime commissioners despite fundamental objections to the establishment of the posts.

Meanwhile, the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, announced that a Labour government would introduce a "victim's law" along the lines advocated by the victims' commissioner, Louise Casey – who once worked as an adviser to Blair – to honour the rights of families of murder victims. Casey once worked as an adviser to Blair.